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Gov. Andrew Cuomo spent most of last night driving around Manhattan, (as anyone who follows the Twitter feed of Director of State Operations Howard Glaser knows)surveying damage caused by Superstorm Sandy’s high wind and storm surge.

“It was as bad as anything I’ve experienced, certainly in New York,” Cuomo said during an interview on WGDJ.

The governor described a “frightening” trip into the seven-story-deep pit at the World Trade Center site, where “the Hudson River was just pouring in.” He also saw water running into Subway tunnels and the Brooklyn-Battery tunnel.

Roughly 750,000 people in New York City are without power. A steam system in Lower Manhattan was shut down. Cuomo said roughly 2 million people around the state are without power, including many on Long Island.

Cuomo said “the cost of the response here is going to be staggering, staggering.” He hoped the federal government would shoulder most of it, as he said after flooding caused by storms Lee and Irene.

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